This imaginative proposal would unfortunately pose some practical difficulties. In particular, there are obvious dangers in transporting nuclear materials in a spacecraft whose own propulsion systems carry a risk of explosion. UN resolutions also prohibit dumping anything in space.

During the early years of nuclear power, little thought was given to disposal. As a result, the UK now has a large amount of waste. Fortunately, most is only slightly radioactive and facilities already exist to manage it at a site called Sellafield in Cumbria. Our plan is to build a geological disposal facility to dispose of it permanently. We haven't selected a site yet, but it will be between 200m and 1km underground in the rock. Once it has been filled, it will be closed and the vaults and tunnels will be sealed, putting the waste beyond reach for many thousands of years while its radioactivity naturally decays to safe levels.

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